Saturday, March 12, 2011

Mariah? or just Today

Note: I wrote this yesterday, but in light of what was going on in Japan, decided not to post to save on bandwidth. I don't know if it makes a difference, but stayed off the net just in case. There have been almost 69,000 Google searches for people so far. Those poor people will suffer for a long time to come. Anyhow, we can't think about nothing but catastrophy all the time, so I thought you might enjoy the pictures and music.
Best wishes, Jim

The Micmac is still on the pickup waiting to see what tomorrow brings. We’re getting mixed reviews on the wind forecast so far. As for today, it will occasionally drop to the high twenties, but mostly it’s gusting between 35 and 50 mph according to the National Weather Service. The rain gutters vibrate and hum. The house makes cracking sounds. Everything gets covered with red dirt.

Those of you old enough will know the song Mariah. A cowboy sits on the prairie lamenting his lost and lonely life in the midst of his only constant---the wind. It goes--They call the wind Mariah. Away out here they got a name for wind and rain and fire. The rain is Tess, the fire is Joe, and they call the wind Mariah. Mariah blows the stars around, and sends the clouds a flyin’. Mariah makes the mountains sound like folks were up there dying. Here’s a link to hear the song with some real nice photography. High winds have various names---Levanter around Gibraltar, Mistral in the Mediterranean, Diablo in Northern California, Chinook, Sirocco, Gale, Williwaw, and so on. I can sympathize with Southern Australians who know them as Brickfielders, because of the red dirt. Here, I just call them “Today.”